MoMA Case Study

Increase Repeat and Longer Engagement and More Pages Exploration for Casual Learners of MoMA Website

MoMA is a world-famous museum located in New York City, with millions of visitors each year. The MoMA user research team is looking for ways to enhance the online art knowledge learning experience for casual learners. To meet this goal, our team conducted user interviews, analyzed qualitative and quantitative research results, and provided four main recommendations: Make filters easier to understand, Implement auto-suggestion and breadcrumbs, Follow a consistent grid view, and Create a dynamic page layout and presentation. We received positive feedback from the MoMA UX research team, stating that our recommendations achieved their success definition.

UX Research Teammates

Yeatasmin Shiropa, Monet Hicks, Divyansha Arora, Becky Su (me)

Tools

Figma, Miro, Canva

Goals and Focus

"Due to the pandemic, the demand for website usage has increased, and as a result, we want to enhance the experience of online art knowledge learning." - MoMA UX Research Team

Continue to foster an online learning environment and invest in digital learning content.

Improve user navigation on "The Collection", "Artists", and "Art Terms" and those related pages.

How client define success

💞 Repeat Engagement

🧐 Longer Engagement

🚀 More Page Exploration

Methodolgy

Moderated User Testing

Interview sessions with users to follow their journey on the website in a moderated setting.

Heuristic Analysis

Individual analysis of website using Jakob Neilsen's 10 Usability Heuristics.

Affinity Diagram

Both individual analysis as well as analysis of interview insights.

Severity Rating

Rating the severoty of the theme/issue on a scale of 1 (least severe) to 4 (most severe).

From moderated user sessions, users felt :

Overwhelmed

" I wouldn't even know where to begin "

Navigating through different pages is messy and cluttered, and going back to other pages in flow us difficult.

Confused

" I'm not really sure what this means "

Jargon throughout the pages with terminology and sentences. Icons within pages aren't always clear.

Disconnected

" I don't know where I am "

Connection between all three pages doesn't present content in a way that allows user to draw intuitive connections.

From Heuristic Analysis, Affinity Diagram and Severity Rating, we found...

100 %

of interviewees expressed confusion with jargon and limitation with filter options

"What do they mean by cataloged works?"

"I hope there are more options for me to filter artworks"

50 %

of interviewees lacked guidance when searching and navigating through the pages

"I had to leave the website to find the correct name of the artists"

"There's no breadcrumbs so I don't know where I am"

75 %

of interviewees found the images and layout to be inconsistent

"Some have photos, some not, it's weird"

"Artists should be available in a proper grid"

100 %

of interviewees had a static learning experience overall

"I want to see different angles"

"There is not enough going on in some of the pages"

Recommendations

Base on the qualitative and quantitative data analysis, we came out four recommendations to solve usability problems to enhance user experience on "the collection", "artists", "art terms" and "artwork" pages.

01 Make Filters Easier to Understand
02 Implement Auto-Suggestion and Breadcrumbs
03 Follow a Consistent Grid View
04 Create a Dynamic Page Layout and Presentation

On the Collection Page

Problem 01

Jargon prevents users from understanding what they can research for and what feedback they will come across.

Problem 02

Users found it difficult to explore more artworks due to the lack of available filters.

Solutions

Make Filters Easier to Understand

Rephrase and add terminology, and expand on filter options to aid in better understanding of information and feedback.

Desktop prototype link

Mobile prototype link

01 Recommendation

Using more familiar terminology for a casual learners and including an information hover for more context.

02 Recommendation

More filter options to narrow down search options through multiple interstes.

03 Extra Recommendation

Based on user testing, we received feedback from participants that images increase engagement. Therefore, we added background images to grab users' interest.

On the Artists Page

Problem 01

Lack of indication as to how far innnto the site a user is.

Problem 02

Lack of auto-selection keeps users guessing as to what they are typing or what may come up.

Solutions

Implement Auto-Suggestion and Breadcrumbs

Elevate searching by displaying auto-suggestion mechanism and add breadcrumb detail for better user retention.

Desktop prototype link

Mobile prototype link

01 Recommendation

Inclusion of breadcrumbs allows user to keep track of their journey.

02 Recommendation

Auto-selection mechanism drops down as user types to provide guidance and preview into search results.

On the Art Terms Page

Problem 01

Lack of images makes current layout overwhelming and inconsistent to look at for users.

Solutions

Follow a Consistent Grid View

Provide alternative visual options to replace areas that are lacking imagery, thus resulting in a consistent grid view.

Desktop prototype link

Mobile prototype link

01 Recommendation

Replacing lack of images with alternative image or text box providing context keeps grid consistent, and make images bigger to help emhance engagement.

On the Artwork Page

Problem 01

Users said that image varirty was not sufficient enough.

Problem 02

Users also noticed information presented was lacking in content about the actual art piece and doesn't utilize white space well.

Solutions

Create a Dynamic Page Layout and Presentation

Altering individual page presentation and layout of image and text to reduce vertical scrolling for an overall dynamic viewing.

Desktop prototype link

Mobile prototype link

01 Recommendation

Showing different angles and more variety in images.

02 Recommendation

More dynamic way of presenting more information without excess vertical scrolling or white space.

03 Recommendation

Adding a share button to sent interests to thers.

Clients Feedback

Achieving Success Definition

After our final presentation to the MoMA UX team, we were pleased to receive positive feedback from MoMA. Several recommendations aligned with the client's goals of longer engagement, repeat engagement, and more page exploration. Additionally, we are delighted that our research results provided MoMA with a new perspective on how users experience their website. As MoMA has been working on this project for a long time, and users may not express their true thoughts during user testing sessions with MoMA, we, as outsiders, can offer more possibilities and insights that MoMA may not have considered

Takeaways

Clarify the Goals of Your Client

The most important thing I learned from this project is to understand how the client defines success. During our initial kickoff meeting, our team and MoMA discussed their needs and what they wanted us to do. However, after the meeting, our professor emphasized the importance of understanding the client's definition of success. This ensures that we are on the same page and affects how we generate design ideas. Furthermore, it is crucial to know if our recommendations are successful. Therefore, in the future, always remember to ask the client, "how will you define the success of our recommendations?"